Los Angeles could soon be the latest of several cities across the nation to make life easier for illegal immigrants by offering them official photo identification cards to help them access taxpayer-funded services and open bank accounts.

So this week a council committee unanimously approved a measure that allows the city to solicit proposals from potential vendors who would implement the ID card program. This, of course, means it’s going to cost taxpayer a chunk of change. The full council must now approve it, but that will be a breeze in the City of Angels. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a renowned open borders advocate, is ready to sign the law. In fact, the idea came from him.

A self-described Chicano mayor, Villaraigosa is a longtime member of an extremist Mexican group (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan—-Mecha) that claims seven states in the southwestern U.S. were stolen from Mexico and must be re conquered and reclaimed for Mexico. He played a key role in his city’s huge and disruptive pro illegal immigration marches a few years ago and encouraged massive student walkouts that cost the area’s beleaguered public school system nearly $1 million.

The L.A. mayor says his key goal is to help illegal immigrants in his city access banking services with the new ID cards. Several municipalities across the nation already offer illegal immigrants official government ID cards to facilitate life in the U.S. New Haven, Connecticut became the first to offer undocumented aliens the cards in 2007 and a handful of others soon followed. In California, San Francisco and Oakland offer illegal immigrants the perk and in New Jersey both Princeton and Trenton issue the cards to illegals.

California has the nation’s largest population of illegal immigrants—mostly from Mexico—and taxpayers take a huge hit to pay for their education, incarceration and medical care. In healthcare alone, Los Angeles County blows about $400 million annually on illegal aliens, according to figures published a few years ago by the Department of Social Services. Welfare and food stamps add another $440 million and incarceration $244 million, according to the agency’s figures.